1. Field of Art
The present disclosure relates to communications apparatus and a method of operating communications apparatus, more specifically to mobile communications devices that are capable of communicating by one of a number of possible communication modes.
2. Description of Related Art
Communications devices are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their flexibility for providing different communication modes when connecting to a destination call party. Typically the communications device provides a user interface enabling the user to select whether to communicate with a destination call party via any one of a number of communication modes such as cellular wireless network, VOIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol) and UMA (Unregistered Mobile Access). Furthermore, the destination call party, which may either be an individual or an enterprise, may have a number of options for receiving communication via each mode. For example, an individual may have a work telephone number, a home telephone and a mobile telephone number and a SKYPE number. Each of these numbers is typically stored in the address book in the communications apparatus.
It is also known for communications availability status information to be made available to a communications device by such destination call parties, such information sometimes being referred to as presence information, and made available either by peer to peer communication or in a registry which acts as a server to push presence information to the communication device. The communications availability status may, for example, be that the destination call party is currently using his own communications device to make a mobile telephone call and therefore cannot receive another mobile telephone call, although he could receive a text message or email. Other situations are possible, for example, where the party enters a setting in their communications device to indicate that they are unavailable because they are attending a meeting or that they wish calls to be diverted to a different destination or different communications devices.
For the user who is contemplating making an outgoing call to contact the destination call party, and therefore, there is a proliferation of choice and a need to ensure that the user interface of his communications device is user friendly and configured to improve the likelihood that the user will make the best choice of communication mode for the outgoing communication. It may also be desirable for the user to have the option of the selection being made automatically by the communicator device.
Typically a communications device will have a processor in which a number of applications are capable of running, different applications being required for different modes of communication, such as an email application being required to send email and an instant messaging application being required to send instant messages. There will typically be an address book application by means of which the user can view via the display screen details of all the contacts with whom he is likely to communicate. A further application may also provide a directory service for locating contact information for entities providing services. When running any one of these applications, the user may decide to generate a communication to an entity which is identified by information displayed in the display screen of the user interface. The user must first choose which communication mode to use and then navigate to the user interface of the application for the selected mode of communication. Because presence information for a given mode is generally only accessible from the screen generated by the application for that mode, the user may experience trouble gaining an overview of the suitability of available modes of communication when deciding how to make an outgoing call.